24 Weeks and Nursery Progress

I've come to terms with the fact that I will never be as good at updating the blog as Sharla! She is right on time with the weekly updates, but I'm more of a bi-weekly girl. :-)

So here's 24 weeks! I'm really showing now...so if co-workers (that work outside of the office, but happen to come by), church members or even just people out (so far a grocery cashier, a cashier at Moe's, and a waitress at a lunch place by work) didn't know yet, they do now! I don't think I've ever been asked "how are you feeling?" so much in my entire life! I am feeling generally well and am trying not to complain too much (Joel might have a different take on this) since I know the 3rd trimester will be especially uncomfortable.


I have also told my managers that I won't be returning and they were very supportive of my decision...I really couldn't have asked for it to have gone any better. 3 months and counting until I will be working at home.

Joel is working very hard on Ace's room--He has ripped out the carpet, put up the beadboard and is now working on painting. Here are some progress shots--the beadboard will be white and the top will be blue.

We're looking forward to a mini-vacation in Highlands, NC for Thanksgiving. We are going to drive up Wednesday afternoon/evening and come back on Saturday. I'll definitely have pictures from our trip!

Awkward Week!

Holy Hormones! They totally kicked in this week! Apparently pregnancy makes me a little, um...witchy. Mostly this was evident at work, since I was having trouble dealing with some of my co-workers. Usually I'm cool as a cucumber and just let things roll off of my back, but this week I definitely had to press many issues that I would normally let go. I was able to write-off my bad mood one day blaming a storm that had kept me up the previous night (which was true). But then the next day I was still in a crabby mood. One co-worker even said "you're still not feeling well, are you?" So I must have had a scowl on my face to go with my bad attitude. :-)


So things were already weird at work (and I'm bothered because everyone just thinks I'm nuts, rather than pregnant)...and then we had a baby shower for a woman in the office. Towards the end of the shower people start chatting about who will have the next baby, and all eyes are suddenly on me. So I have to make a big deal about it not being me (sorry, Ace) and try to change the subject. I guess in a few weeks the joke will be on them.

Working to live...not living to work

So work has been crazy this week...actually for a few weeks now, hence my lack of posting. I did get to travel for work last week though. We had our Region Conference in Hollywood, FL. It was great to connect some faces to names--there are over 225 people in our region, so I've really only met the local folks face to face. The days were long, but I did get to spend 2 hours at the beach one afternoon and the hotel was really nice. I did miss Joel and Sammy a lot though and was glad to come home.

"Working" while enjoying my Shock Top Belgian White at dinner by the Intracoastal Waterway...Josh I'm bringing you and Jackson some of this to replace your Blue Moon :-)

Back among the living...

It's been a whirlwind couple of weeks at the Penny house! Here's my attempt at a general wrapup--

On President's Day weekend, we hung up the shelves that Joel has been working on for the dining room. I really like them, although I'm not sure about the arrangement of everything I want on them. It is nice to have some more storage space!















I also got to catch up with my friend Kara while she was in Atlanta visiting some friends of her husband. It had been That was the same day that Jackson was born! So I waited a whole long week at work to get to go to visit the little guy. Joel and I had a great time visiting (and Jackson was really good while we were there)...Joel made his first visit to Babies R Us with Josh while Sharla and I caught up. The best part was we were able to get some great photographs of Jackson and his mom & dad--

And we got to love on the guy a little bit too:

On Sunday, I started to feel like I was getting sick. Joel was sweet and let me sleep the whole way home and I basically just laid on the couch all afternoon. I got up Monday and went to work, but threw in the towel after an hour and went home. Some crazy virus was going around our office and 4 other people were sick too! Joel had left for Seattle on a business trip--he went to Pikes Place Market and the original Starbucks and forgot to take a single picture for me! So I was home all alone to take care of myself :-(

Today we finally put together the order for our wedding album (yes, almost four years later). I had previously worked for our photographer and she shot our wedding for free--but we would have to pay for the album. Her work is really great, but also really expensive, so we haven't had the funds to order the album until now. We're sooo looking forward to finally having it! Tonight we're going on a little date to one of our fav restaurants- California Dreaming to celebrate Joel's annual bonus and my new position, which went into effect this week! Our Valentine's dinner wasn't all we had hoped it would be, but we know we'll have a great dinner tonight!

Catching up and an All Star Weekend

The last two weeks have literally been a blur...between snowy days here in Atlanta and total craziness at work I don't know if I'm coming or going most days. Quick rant related to the snow--we got a new Nikon D-80 camera after Christmas. I took it to Sharla's shower and right in the middle it stopped working (the pictures were so dark that nothing was recognizable). I figured I had messed up some setting and sat there for probably 30 minutes trying to figure it out. I knew once I got back home Joel would probably take one look at it and tell me what silly mistake I had made. Well, that was not the case. After he tinkered with it for about 30 minutes he realized the flash wasn't working. We had the camera for less than 2 weeks and the flash had already broken! Luckily, we have a Nikon service center in Atlanta, so Joel was able to drop off the camera. But--it would happen to snow *twice* at our house since he took the camera to be repaired! I'm sure that will never happen again. And we had some exciting events this weekend that he would have loved to have captured.

So, back to the craziness. My position at work has been expanded through the re-org we've been going through and I had my first business trip this past week. I got to go all the way to Atlanta! Woohoo! But, I did get to spend a night at the Ritz Carlton and get out of the office for two days. The days leading up to the meeting were a mess though, since the presentation was left in my hands and I didn't get a lot of pieces until the last minute (hello, pet peeve)! The NHL All Star game and events leading up to it were this weekend. With the events, my company sponsored a concert on Thursday night that I attended with my group from work. It was the new band One Republic. They are kind of a one hit band right now, but the concert was actually really good. I stayed out a little too late and enjoyed myself a little too much, but our meetings were over by noon on Friday and I was able to go home and crawl in bed :-)

Our only plans for the weekend were to attend a Stanley Cup viewing party--again in conjunction with the NHL All Star game.

When we got to the event we were given tickets to the Skills Challenge that night and tickets to the All Star game on Sunday. So we spent most of the weekend down in Atlanta at Philips Arena. The Eastern Conference won both the Skills Challenge and the All Star Game. Go East!

Mountain Weekend

Sharla did a really good post about the weekend--I don't think I could do it justice and I'm also too tired to try! I'm just going to update a few different pictures that were on my camera. After we got back on Sunday I was feeling like I was getting sick, but had to go to work yesterday and today to tackle the budget deadlines that are coming up. So I've worked late both days this week and am exhausted!

Joel working on breakfast on Saturday morning

Joel and I (haha, j/k Sharla)

Ok, so that's only 2 pictures...but I realized I didn't take any good ones and blogger wasn't letting me upload any more. So I give up! Rex and Liz have more on their camera...so there may be more to come later.

Dave Matthews Band--Green Concert for Piedmont Park

Even though I've had a couple of busy weeks at work and I know that I have some long days ahead as I go through my first year of budget planning, I really can't complain because my position includes some really awesome perks. The best one so far has to be the VIP tickets that my manager gave me and Joel for the Dave Matthews Band concert in Piedmont Park. My company was a big sponsor and I helped with some of the administrative details for our sponsorship. It was really an awesome event and it raised over one million dollars for a 53-acre expansion of the park. The VIP experience was awesome....we had free food (including Ben and Jerry's ice cream, which I was very excited about) and drinks, nicer bathroom facilities with short lines and were able to actually sit down and enjoy the show from our area on the hill, as opposed to standing up for six hours with the other 50,000 fans. It was an awesome date for me and Joel and a night I won't soon forget.

I had the best date there :-)

Enjoying my Ben & Jerry's

That's a lot of people, and a lot of port-a-potties

and my newest fav picture :-)

A Whole Lotta Nothin

Not too much to write about...desperately awaiting the long weekend and our trip to Savannah :-)


I've spent the last two days out riding with wholesaler guys and have decided that I definitely prefer my desk job! Driving around for 9-10 hours a day, counting beer in 20 degree coolers and not even stopping for lunch is not my idea of a good time. Definitely ready to go back to the office tomorrow!


Last weekend we ventured down to Atlanta to IKEA to pick up some bookcases for the office. Of course, we got caught up looking at everything and by the time we got to the area where you pick the stuff off of the shelves, they were sold out of the bookcases we wanted (they had an accent shelf and this extender kit...oh, and the doors that we decided to put on the bottom after we saw a display...yeah, they reeled us in). They just got a shipment, and Joel has gone to pick the rest up. Who knows when we'll get to putting it together though.


Saturday evening we took Sammy to Petapalooza...this pet party thing that a radio station puts on at our local park. We did snap one picture

Sorry, Mom, haven't been able to catch him going in/out the doggie door. Maybe I'll have to lure him with a treat.

The Floors are done!

But Joel and I can not take all of the credit....

Last week Joel found out that he was getting a promotion (he will now be a Trust Advisor, with his own book of clients) and gets to work in an office that is 9 miles from our house (his commute was 28 miles). After much celebration he decided to give our contractor/neighbor a call and have his guys come finish the floor. They finished the remaining 400 square feet in half a day. Whew! Joel is willing to give up some of the more labor intensive jobs to contractors in the future, and would like to more actively pursue woodworking (which he is currently doing in the form of a trellis for our front yard).

Most importantly---Sammy thinks the hardwoods are just as good for napping as the old carpet.

A few before and afters:

These are a little dark, but you get the idea

We are really pleased with the way they turned out!

What I miss most about my old job...

the cake! We had monthly birthday celebrations, with the most delicious cakes http://www.pieceofcakeinc.com/cakes.php

My personal fav is thewhich sadly is only available Sept-Nov. I'm sure my odds of talking Joel into a Thanksgiving banana cake instead of his sweet potato pie are slim to none.